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. 2013;8(2):e56443.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056443. Epub 2013 Feb 25.

Organic carbon storage in four ecosystem types in the karst region of southwestern China

Yuguo Liu  1 , Changcheng Liu, Shijie Wang, Ke Guo, Jun Yang, Xinshi Zhang, Guoqing Li
Affiliations

Organic carbon storage in four ecosystem types in the karst region of southwestern China

Yuguo Liu et al. PLoS One. 2013.

Erratum in

  • PLoS One. 2014;9(9):e106876

Abstract

Karst ecosystems are important landscape types that cover about 12% of the world's land area. The role of karst ecosystems in the global carbon cycle remains unclear, due to the lack of an appropriate method for determining the thickness of the solum, a representative sampling of the soil and data of organic carbon stocks at the ecosystem level. The karst region in southwestern China is the largest in the world. In this study, we estimated biomass, soil quantity and ecosystem organic carbon stocks in four vegetation types typical of karst ecosystems in this region, shrub grasslands (SG), thorn shrubbery (TS), forest - shrub transition (FS) and secondary forest (F). The results showed that the biomass of SG, TS, FS, and F is 0.52, 0.85, 5.9 and 19.2 kg m(-2), respectively and the corresponding organic cabon storage is 0.26, 0.40, 2.83 and 9.09 kg m(-2), respectively. Nevertheless, soil quantity and corresponding organic carbon storage are very small in karst habitats. The quantity of fine earth overlaying the physical weathering zone of the carbonate rock of SG, TS, FS and F is 38.10, 99.24, 29.57 and 61.89 kg m(-2), respectively, while the corresponding organic carbon storage is only 3.34, 4.10, 2.37, 5.25 kg m(-2), respectively. As a whole, ecosystem organic carbon storage of SG, TS, FS, and F is 3.81, 4.72, 5.68 and 15.1 kg m(-2), respectively. These are very low levels compared to other ecosystems in non-karst areas. With the restoration of degraded vegetation, karst ecosystems in southwestern China may play active roles in mitigating the increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. CWD organic carbon concentrations of two ecosystems in the karst area, southwestern China.
F and FS are the abbreviations of secondary forest and forest - shrub transition, respectively. Error bars represent the standard errors.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Litter and Oa layer organic carbon concentrations of four ecosystems in the karst area, southwestern China.
F, FS, TS, SG are the abbreviations of the secondary forest, forest - shrub transition, thorn shrubbery, and rare shrub grassland, respectively. Error bars represent the standard errors. Different lowercase letters denote significant differences among three layers in F and FS stands.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Soil bulk density and organic carbon concentration of four ecosystems in the karst area, southwestern China.
F, FS, TS, SG are the abbreviations of secondary forest, forest - shrub transition, thorn shrubbery, and rare shrub grassland, respectively. Error bars represent the standard errors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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